Cuba: Here we go again?

Can anyone link to anything genuinely interesting/informative about what Gross was actually doing there and whether there was actually any basis for his arrest?

seeing all this preemptive righteous anticommercialism is nauseating

Shepard Smith, who worked in Miami and Naples for years, is practically trembling with excitement. He also repeated the cliche regarding the definition of insanity -- that's how FOX can claim it's Fair and Balanced.

how soon till i can get some havana club on the reg?

haha. why's shep "trembling with excitement," e.g., the opportunity to pander to a well-known fox-leaning demographic?

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/authorities_hope_thaw_in_cuban_relations_will_aid_capture_of_nj_cop_killer_joanne_chesimard.html

My thoughts on the matter.

Very happy, and poised for a comeback.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100426143902/godfather/images/7/74/Vlcsnap-2010-02-25-19h21m17s23.png

My thoughts on the matter.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 9:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is a moving and smart piece of writing, Alfred.

"...as the people of Italy have, where he now lives. Obviously the Vatican's its own state, but very nearby," the senator and rumored 2016 presidential hopeful continued.

i imagine rubio continuing to ramble in this circumlocutions manner for minutes as the media and then his staffers leave one by one and finally a janitor comes by and turns the lights off. "…i mean, you know, the vatican isn't really a democracy either, but uh, pope francis should know, uh, I mean, that democracies are all around, and…"

that is a moving and smart piece of writing, Alfred.

― Vic Perry,

thanks, Vic!

My thoughts on the matter.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 9:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is a moving and smart piece of writing, Alfred.

― Vic Perry, Wednesday, December 17, 2014 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed Alfred, enjoyed that post a lot

since the tourism ban can only be lifted by Congress, we can expect to see that go in...?

sadly we'll always have Congress, Morbs.

I would suggest you all become humanitarians or educators if you want to go, meantime.

Essay on TPM:

It happens pretty much every time I meet someone new and they find out I’m Cuban. Have you been? is usually their first question—generally just a way to attempt a polite transition to their own inevitable Cuba visit story. I brace myself for these stories, plaster a polite smile on my face, and try to change the subject as quickly as possible. Many of them come with a sentiment similar to Jeremy Scahill’s tweet yesterday—a kind of perverse, nostalgic desire to witness things “before they change.” I can’t keep track of the number of times someone has recounted this sentiment to me. Last year, it happened at a week-long training I was participating in, and it was the first time there was another Cuban-American present, with whom I could exchange a weary, knowing glance.

I’m sure there are hundreds (thousands?) of people right now trying to figure out if they can visit Cuba before the inevitable surge of change. Miss seeing the crumbling buildings? The fifties-era cars? The Castro government propaganda? I’ve never understood these sentiments. I find them to be so tone-deaf, like this place that has shaped my entire existence is just a type of disaster tourism, a fun stop on a political nostalgia to-do list. They’re sentiments that gloss over and negate all the suffering and loss that has shaped what Cuba is today.

It gets to the mixed reaction of someone my age hearing about deprivations secondhand yet recoiling from the unintentional crudeness from those who haven't witnessed either.

when I was in Russia right after the wall fell the biggest tourist draws were Soviet memorabilia/buildings etc

Maybe it was partly due to the structure of the group visit I went on, but I'd say you have to be pretty willful, sheltered and/or insensible to overlook the deprivation in Cuba.

I imagine something similar is going to happen here - aw communist dictatorship detritus, ain't it cuet

xp

This triggered her article:

jeremy scahill ✔ @jeremyscahill
Follow

I'm very glad I was able to visit Cuba several times before US tourists try to turn it into Cancun

tbf Cancun is p fucked up

I un-followed Scahill a few years ago after a photo he posted of himself and Fidel inspired commments like "WOW, YOU GO!" and "SO JEALOUS" and "YEAH EL JEFE!"

(I still read his books)

of course for Americans there's no middle ground really between Communist-regime-induced squalor and capitalist-induced-squalor + RESORT LIVING

Communist-regime- and moronic-American-blockade-induced squalor

hey plenty of credit to go around

I did not eat in any of the paladares citizens operated in Havana 10 years ago, but I talked to people (who knew English) in the parks and the streets and usually gave them money when I was panhandled. I think most of the people in our group did the same. I'm sure we all were partly guilty of gringo complicity, but I don't think "disaster tourism" is the sum total of such travel.

Link: http://forums.talkingpointsmemo.com/t/discussion-why-i-don-t-want-to-hear-about-your-nostalgia-tour-through-cuba/14589/30

is there possibly some residual "oh what might have been" leftist nostalgia for the Castro regime at play here? (which was obviously from p early on an unqualified disaster, from a marxist/leftist perspective) Like oh they almost had a socialist paradise, look at how many doctors they turned out etc.

that forum link is ... interesting. I'm not really sympathetic to arguments that American corporate hegemony does a great job of increasing the standard of living wherever it goes tho.

I'm glad she made the point though: you can't find any goddamn clean needles in this socialist paradise.

Other than the tourist sector, which is reasonably mature already, and sugar is there anything particularly notable for US corporate hegemony to influence? It's not as though Cuba is likely to get a massive increase in revenue in the medium term or that the U.S. is the world's sole purveyor of commercial tat.

The questions about how / when the economic system is going to be reformed and who is going to influence that are much more interesting in the post-Eastern Bloc context, but there doesn't seem like a vast amount to build oligarchies out of.

Not that this question is necessarily answerable, plus to make it worse it seems to presume some kind of definite answer where none is possible. Okay, here goes: how is Alejo Carpentier regarded by Cuban-Americans?

Thanks to a tip from Harold Bloom, I discovered his novels about 20 years ago. "Explosion in a Cathedral" is, I'm sure, permanently tied for best novel I will ever read, I am quite sure. Just an unbelievably good book and I don't know one person who has read it, despite or because of my years of nagging (I'm exaggerating....kind of).

I know Carpentier had been imprisoned in the pre-Castro years, and was happy to act as diplomat for Cuba to Paris in the post-Castro years. I could see people doing this kind of "collaborator" thing with him, and with Julio Cortazar (who I also love). Any info on reactions, etc. would be welcome.

unfamiliar w Carpentier myself (my fave Cuban novelist is easily Cabrera-Infante). altho I was unaware there was any connection between Cortazar (who I also love) and Castro...?

Cortazar made a point of defending left-wing regimes in Central & South America (Cuba & the Sandinistas come to mind), although it clearly made him uneasy too.

is the best Cabrera-Infante book Three Trapped Tigers? I was reading a paperback of that about ten years ago and I LOST it.

yeah that's the one imo

Well I need to go get another copy obv.

Don't miss "Explosion in a Cathedral".

this is getting off-topic but this has been on my amazon wishlist forever:
http://lahistoriadeldia.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/fantomas-contra-los-vampiros-multinacionales.jpg

Looks like P-Funk Cortazar! very exciting.

Carpentier's reputation is high. I prefer The Kingdom of this World and press it on anyone who's interested.

"Kingdom" is the most famous one I think, a huge attention getter - and short too, makes an indelible impact quickly. I need to re-read that one.

What interests me about "Explosion" is the ambivalence: the permanent relevance of the interplay between privileged youth & driven ideologues. I was hooked right from that prologue about the first guillotine heading to the New World as a compass, right down to those insane plot developments. But you know, I'm crazy about Stendahl's "Charterhouse of Parma" for the same kind of reasons: that kind of wide scope novel full of insane passions.

Apt comparison.

That Cortazar is lots of daft fun. Fictionalised versions of him and a withering/sexy Susan Sontag and Alberto Moravio and co vs an international conspiracy, inspired by a mad comic book that featured same.

dumb question: does the US embargo stipulate that countries doing business with cuba (say in europe) suffer from any kind of censure from the US? b/c to my understanding most major european countries have some form of trade with cuba.

i have to admit it boggles my mind that not doing business with the united states would hamper a country's economy to the extent that they are lacking in essential medical supplies. though i'm sure the situation is more complex (maybe there's some mismanagement on the part of the cuban gov't as well). i understand how the embargo of iran could hurt its economy because it extends far beyond just limiting trade with a single country, and because a huge chunk of Iran's economy is dependent on one product (oil) that is primarily an export commodity. but i don't know the situation in cuba.

anyway, i wonder how long it'll take congress to get around to lifting the embargo. i imagine it won't take /that/ long, but of course it won't happen while obama is in power.

my partner's dad is a died-in-the-wool castro fan and one of those people who (a) thinks the cuban gov't can do no wrong (i'm not sure what he does with the cognitive dissonance this creates when people bring up their persecution of homosexuals); (b) influx of US money/influence will "ruin" the country. he's a strange mix of very informed (he reads a lot and knows more about cuba than i do, for sure) and oblivious (to anything that might put the castro regime in a bad light).

died/dyed

There are no barrier to European / Chinese trade, as far as i know. Cuba trades freely with other countries (exporting tobacco and sugar and importing most of its food). The GDP per capita is broadly comparable to other countries in the region and higher than Jamaica, for example. It has been heavily reliant on assistance from Venezuela for oil in the past, though, and there's only a limited amount of access to international finance for loans, etc. It has been hit heavily by the economic crisis (particularly the domestic economic crisis in Venezuela) and the variable price for sugar.

Not sure what the medical situation is, other than that it gets a lot of money from medical tourism and that is almost certainly going to lead to a two tier system with gluts and shortages affecting residents more than visitors.

there is about US$400 million exported annually to Cuba (medical and other 'emergency' goods?)

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c2390.html

These people are depraved https://t.co/36mBvvBBfJ

— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) March 23, 2020

Nasty!